BJP welcomes Sushil Rinku, Sheetal Angural in huge roadshow at Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, March 29

Welcoming the newly joined Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku and Jalandhar West MLA Sheetal Angural into the party fold, the BJP on Friday took out a huge roadshow in Jalandhar. Starting at the Workshop Chowk, the site of a statue of Swami Vivekananda, the roadshow traversed various areas in Jalandhar with the key BJP leadership in attendance.

Garlanded with marigolds, Rinku and Angural greeted people from atop a vehicle with the words ‘welcome’ sprawled across its top.

Speaking on the occasion, Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku said, “For the people of Jalandhar and inspired by the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have left the post of MLA and MP, which people plead for.”

BJP leaders KD Bhandari, Sarabjit Makkar, Ashok Sareen Hicky, Sushil Sharma, among others, were present during the roadshow which concluded at the Ambedkar Chowk here.

Meanwhile, expressing continued resentment against the exit of the twin leaders who were with the AAP until Tuesday, the Aam Aadmi Party workers held a protest at Bhagwan Valmiki Chowk in Jalandhar, holding posters bearing photos of Rinku and Angural with the words, “Punjab de Gaddar” (traitors of Punjab) written on them. The same posters stuck across streets and thoroughfares in city, had invited a fresh complaint by the BJP leaders against AAP workers last night.

A day after he joined the BJP, MLA Sheetal Angural has become the subject of a fresh controversy wherein his pictures with Manish Thakur, the alleged kingpin of an international opium smuggling cartel, are going viral on social media. In early March this year, Jalandhar police had said that UK-based Manish, alias Mani Thakur, was the kingpin of an international drug cartel. The disclosure was made after the arrest of three suspects of the cartel, which was active in sourcing opium from Jharkhand and routing it through courier operators in Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar, to be dispatched overseas.

Responding to the controversy while speaking to the mediapersons during the road show today, Angural questioned the timing of the viral image, while levelling allegations against AAP leaders.

Speaking to mediapersons, Angural alleged, “I have just left the AAP. Meri photo ajj hi viral honi si? Balkar Singh, who is the cabinet minister, must be asked who is this Manish Thakur. His chaheta (favourite), an AAP worker? Cabinet minister Anmol Gagan Mann must be asked about Manish Thakur. It must be asked what Manish Thakur was doing during the Dhuri by-election?”

Speaking to The Tribune, Jalandhar Commissioner of Police Swapan Sharma said, “Investigation in the case is going on. That is all that can be said at the moment.”

Row over mla’s pic with ‘Drug Kingpin’

A day after he joined the BJP, MLA Sheetal Angural has become the subject of a fresh controversy wherein his pictures with Manish Thakur, the alleged kingpin of an international opium smuggling cartel, are going viral on social media. In early March this year, Jalandhar police had said that UK-based Manish, alias Mani Thakur, was the kingpin of an international drug cartel. The disclosure was made after the arrest of three suspects of the cartel, which was active in sourcing opium from Jharkhand and routing it through courier operators in Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar, to be dispatched overseas.

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